AHMEDABAD: His Grace Dr Geevarghese Mar Yulios has laid emphasis on the new liturgical year as an occasion to transform the lives of the faithful.
During the occasion of Diocesan Day, His Grace quotes from Apostle 3 John 4: ‘I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.’

The Metropolitan stresses on the Diocesan Day cover collection as the main source of income of the Diocese to meet the daily expenses at the Diocesan Bishop’s House. The amount is also used to run various charitable projects of the Diocese, progress of various spiritual organisations and other general needs. The Diocesan Assembly has therefore decided to receive the same amount of the Catholicate Day collections as well for the Diocesan Day collection too.

The projections are that if each of the family from the parishes in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh contribute a minimum amount of IRS 400 and RO 5 from the Sultanate of Oman, the Diocese can achieve the target easily.
The Metropolitan has therefore encouraged vicars, parish committees and Assembly members of each parish to collect and remit the amount assigned to the Catholicate Day collection and also the Diocesan Day collection before December 31, 2018.

The Ahmedabad Diocese Metropolitan has exhorted all parishes to conduct in a befitting manner at the Parish level to mark the importance of the beginning of Liturgical Year (Kudoshetho-Sunday), and also keep the Diocese and its various projects in their daily prayers.

The Diocesan Day is held every year on the first day of the Liturgical year or the Kudoshetho-Sunday, on November 4, 2018.

In order to help the faithful to follow the Liturgical life in a meaningful way, Mar The Bishop mentions the publication of liturgical calendar each year to each of the families and offers thanks to God Almighty for the blessings showered upon the Diocese since its inception in 2009.

Mar Yulios also outlined various projects of the Diocese which are in many stages of completion.

These are the St Thomas Orthodox Retreat Centre, Abu Road, Rajasthan, slated to be consecrated in March 2019 by the His Holiness Catholicos of the East, and the Silver Jubilee of Schools founded by HG LL Dr Stephanos Mor Theodosius in Madhya Pradesh with a new school at Mayakhedi, Indore.

The Diocese also launched Rs 1.5 crore project as per the suggestion of His Holiness Catholicos of the East, in order to respond to the needs of the flood affected people in Kerala.

The consecration of St Mary’s Orthodox Parish, Ghala, Sultanate of Oman, has been planned to be held on December 7, 8, 2018, in a short span of four years. All the parishes are performing extremely well with many spiritual, developmental and charitable projects run by each of the parishes.